Red
by dreamerinthewake
Summary: Based off a dream I had when I was young about Red the boomer, a toddler, and what happened after the events of the Rescuers Down Under movie


**Everyone who has seen the Rescuers Down Under movie has wondered what had become of the critters locked up in McLeach's lair in the end. Now, this story is based off a dream I had one night when I was seven about that unresolved wonderment. I saw Red the boomer behind glass (in a zoo, I suppose) talking to a black haired toddler who was holding a notebook. I heard him say something like "the rangers came too late. I was the only one alive." and I guessed the rest of them starved to death as I feared. I then saw the toddler back away from the glass while Red was pitching a fit for some reason and that's when the dream ended. It was one of those dreams that stuck to me throughout the years until I heard of fan fiction writing, then it was the first thing that popped into my head. Wow! I can write and share a story tightly based off of a movie or book without getting capitally punished as long as it's labeled 'fan fiction'? Where the hell have I been? This is awesome! So here it is.**

**My work of fan fiction.**

**Prepare for inexperienced writing…**

**1**** Red found himself slumped under a small tree on a hill looking down upon a resting mob as he woke. His head hurt and he could not recall anything that happened before a black sleep last took him. He dimly observed all around him. **

**It looked like for a moment that he had made it back home to his old mob, but these fellow roos were unfamiliar to him and when he looked further out amongst the descending plain, he noticed a dark barrier with square holes and people moving in them. Looking to one end of the barrier, there joined a much taller barrier of a lighter shade that went only half the darker one's length. From this one's other end the same dark barrier continued without holes. Following it, he soon found that it surrounded him. **

**He was trapped in a grassland he could not migrate from, a grassland closed in by a dark wall and many unfamiliar objects and moving people outside of it. His head hurt worse, with a growing dread. He quickly decided to ask one of the strange mob laying nearest to him, "Where am I?" **

**The laying boomer sat up and looked him over, "You're new. This is home as far as I can tell; he stretched long and curled up again. "Ya get used to it soon. Pretty comfortable here." To this, Red stammered, "But, what if it dries up at the end of the season? We'll all be trapped here to thirst!" he anxiously eyed the dark wall. The boomer pointed to a large pond behind Red that hugged half of the hill's base. "See that? It hasn't dried up even a little as long as I've been here and I'm sure it's been years. Long lazy, comfortable years within these walls under excessive sun and dwindling rain." **

"**Years of wandering about in the same place and not following the rain? That doesn't sound like us. Can we not get out?"**

"**Nope. We're stuck here, mate. You'll learn to love it, especially after you try the grain they provide here! You tasted it yet?" he turned Red towards the taller lighter shaded wall where Red suddenly noticed an opening at it's base. "I don't want to taste it. I want out of here!" Red said, bounding off down the hill towards the opening like a hopping missile. The boomer lay his head down again for another snooze, "Might as well taste it. That's where it is anyway."**

**Red burst through the opening into a darkened void. It took a few impatient seconds to see anything around him clearly. He felt sand under his feet as he advanced further, then he hit a tree as he saw just then. **

**It was the desert, only under a roof with sunlight pouring through holes and sealed within a similar dark wall with the same square holes, only they were much larger than he thought they would be. Some of the people in these holes had stopped suddenly to gather and look at him. He ignored their excited beckoning and looked for a hole without any people in it. When he found it, desperation sent him flying at it. One last leap and he smashed into a cold hard invisible barrier that formed a small web of cracks where his head hit. A faint high-pitched scream issued from the outside as he fell to the ground, his head throbbing and everything around him spinning. **

**A few moments later, he managed to pick himself up and peer dizzily over the bottom edge through the window he'd tried to escape through. On the other side he saw a growing crowd of fretful people flashing blinding lights at him nonstop. In front of them all a small black-haired child stood frozen in fear, almost dropping his notebook. For a moment the black hair lightened to a familiar shade through Red's visual struggle, but before he could focus sharply enough, the boy had bolted away down the hall. The rapidly flickering lights were too much for Red's now worsened headache. He tried to stand and back away but he collapsed there under the window. **

**He was in a dark stall upon a floor of hardened grass when he was startled out of his deep torpor by two echoing voices. Looking up through the bars, there were two people in similar white clothing but different shapes talking until the thinner one noticed him. **

"**Ah, look! He's awake and moving about. I couldn't help but dread he'd damaged his brain after that little mishap. All night his legs were twitching, making me nervous as hell. But now, he looks like he's as curious as he was yesterday!" the thinner one said to the round one. The round one jumped in a fit of joy and approached the bars, crouching and smiling at the restless red boomer. "That was glass, my boy. Now you know. Now you know really well!" he laughed long and hard. His belly jiggled happily behind his full black beard. He stood back up but with a bit of difficulty midway. A painful but excepting groan until he was fully erect again. **

"**Well, my spine won't take much more of that. I'm headed back to my office. Take care of him, Lee." and the round one slowly lumbered off, leaving the skinny one to observe Red another few minutes, writing down upon a pad. Red stood still and stared cautiously at this skinny one, his black hair reaching down to his shoulders much like the round one's beard to his waist. A heavy and careless look in his eyes as he gazed up from his pad at the roo.**

**He suddenly spoke, which made Red jump again. "You're gonna have to behave and quit hurting yourself, ya hear. I don't want any more bumps on that head of yours. This is your home now so you need to settle down. Let's see…X rays, levels…everything seems fine here. You got lucky. Well, now that you've passed my examination, you're going back out. You'll be okay, buddy." **

**Red was released back into the exhibit, only he set out upon the grassland an instantly broken soul. The enclosed wall with it's impassible holes, the stall, the two white-clothed men all filled his mind with cold chains and cuffs, bars and locks, dust and darkness. All hope in him had been completely rubbed out.**

**The boomer he met the day before caught him under the small tree on the hill trying to sleep forever in his despair. **

"**Find the grain?" he asked. Red didn't answer. The boomer gave him a nudge and was jabbed violently in the nose. "Ey! What was that for? I come and try to ask ya something and ya bop me like a want a challenge! You want a face off here? I'll give ya a face off, takin' your face off as well!" he reared up ready for it, but Red lay still, grumbling, **

"**A little sign I like to call 'Leave me be!' if you choose to ignore the rest!" **

**The boomer lowered his fists and scoffed, "All I did was tap ya, mate. You didn't have to throw at me."**

"**You want another one? I want to die here under this tree, if you don't mind. Be off and don't bother me again. I refuse to live one more day in this cage!"**

"**You want to die? How about you go ahead and froth your lips and tremble about like a sick biter and go for one of the young ones in the windows. They'll up and shoot ya in no time!" The boomer was done with Red, trudging away in a steam, rubbing his pulsing nose. **

**Red lay there a long while, trying to remember how he ended up in this hole. In his mind there was his familiar mob among the wide open land, then there was a black space and finally the moment he first woke up here under this tree. Something happened in between but it would not show. **

**The sun lowered behind the tall light-shaded building where the desert lay inside, leaving him in a cool vast shadow. He faced the gathering stars above through the shivering leaves and tried to empty his head of all thought, focusing on the black space, then something fell upon the tip of his tail. His painful yelp was heard by the group of snickering roos nearby who'd heaved the large rock at him, hoping to grant his last wish by aiming for his head. They dispersed quickly before he looked around him. **

**He caressed his tip trying not to let his anger build any higher. He examined it for blood or fractures due to it's painful zig-zaggy form. Zig-zaggy…everything poured into his head at once!**

"**Frank's tail…Frank! Krebbs! That dark room!; he jumped up and tried to line everything up, only with a tragic outcome. "Oh no… Frank tried to free us all. He couldn't pick every lock so he escaped to go find help. Days became weeks. The rangers came too late, for I was the only one whom starvation hadn't claimed yet. Polly! Krebbs! If only that damn McLeach hadn't taken the boy and the keys away…the boy!" the light haired boy who could talk to them and had also helped motivate their escape whirled wildly through his head. **

**Away down the hill gathered around the pond, the mob jeered, "You want another rock, ya sad wretch? Why not try the sick biter method now before they all leave? Come on, it's easier than you think!"**

**Red immediately saw the boy's light hair turn black and a notebook fall into his hands and he locked onto that image with a newfound hope. **

**He leapt down the hill to the square windows below and searched every one back and forth from that moment on. The mob cheered him on, "There he goes. Froth that mouth! Act fierce and crazy! Let them take aim atcha! He would've been a fine one of the buds here, but ah…pity what a loss."**

**The night took over. The number of people depleted to nothing over the hours Red was busy looking through one window after another. He'd gathered plenty of attention with his oddly over-curious behavior, but none too unsettling though to alert the staff. **

**When he finally noticed there were no more people to be seen anywhere besides the occasional one with a broom or a massive ring of keys, he calmed himself uneasily though he was exhausted. Light after light shut off as he crawled his way into the desert exhibit to settle under a window. **

**He kept assuring himself that the boy would come back for due to a deep gut feeling he was the only one left who could help him. If the light haired boy came back, that would have been nothing short of a miracle too, but McLeach took him and Red was convinced whoever McLeach took away in his clutches would disappear forever, as he had done so with some of his fellow critters back in the lair, long ago it seemed. **

**This boy with the notebook was his last chance.**

**2**** The morning sun beamed down upon Red through the doorway of the exhibit. He lay limp under the window, opening an eye toward the doorway. He beheld still the same horrid closed-in grassland glistening in dew and riddled with an active mob that no longer cared for him and his pathetic, self destructive attitude towards them. He rolled over facing the wall, turning away from the sun and the nightmare. Then he heard something on the other side. He bolted up and looked through the glass into an empty hallway. **

**Something was scratching against a surface as his long ears could hear. He followed it from window to window until it was right in front of him. But he saw no one there. **

**He drooped, looking down.**

**By sudden anticipating luck what struck all of a sudden, there was the top of a black head resting against the other side of the wall. And when he raised himself up to look over it, there it was a tiny hand with a stick sketching lines onto a white pad. But it stopped. Red's shadow (especially his twitching ears) caught it's attention and it turned to look at him. **

**Red drew in a big breath of delight, it was the black haired boy with the notebook! **

**But the boy quickly jumped back in overwhelming fear, this time dropping the pad and pencil and trying desperately to pick them up. Red hopped excitedly and called out to him, frightening the child even more. **

**The boy couldn't have looked more than four or five years old as he was very small in his baggy clothing and tears easily began trailing down his round cheeks. He fell back and scooted himself away against the opposite wall of the hallway. Red noticed his own over-bearing approach and tried to gesture gently, but the boy had closed his eyes tight and was feeling the floor for his pad and pencil in front of him with his trembling hands, trying to forget there was a giant maddened kangaroo trying to break through the glass to get at him again like it did the day before yesterday. Then he heard loud and clear, **

"**Please help me! I won't hurt you!" followed by a loud rap against the glass. He froze and looked down both ends of the hall. There was no one coming or going. He looked up at the kangaroo who had both arms up against the glass and a surprisingly emotional expression in it's face, but he backed away again and remained still against the wall away from it, his face wet with fear.**

**Thus did Red realize there was no way of getting through to this kid. He blew it, making himself appear more a monster than a victim in need. He slowly slunk down under the window and out of sight. **

**He gazed around at his new home from where he sat, his eternal prison. Doomed to wander this shrinking area and never travel. If only he could end it all, he closed his eyes and dreamt of long ago. The ever stretching miles of blissful bound with his beloved mob toward the land where the newly swelled rivers waited for them. He could hear thunder ahead but not as deafening as was their feet in flight.**

_**tap tap… **_**upon the glass behind him woke him. **

**He slowly turned and raised his head over the wall to meet the face of that little kid (or just the kid's teary eyes that were high enough to peer over the edge at him) **

"**Do… you need help?" the boy whispered timidly, though Red's ears picked it up clearly. Red was overjoyed that he almost broke down, but he kept himself together the best he could.**

"**I have to get out. This place is killing me! Please let me out!" he tried not to frighten the boy again, but his memories fueled his panic. But the boy could now finally understand him. "How is my grampa's zoo killing you? The other roos seem to like it here."**

"**They haven't been through what I've been through. I've been kidnapped from my home, chained up to the brink of death in a poachers lair while my new friends all died one by one around me, and then when I thought I was free when the rangers finally came, I end up here to lay about withering away! Can't you let me out?" No tears could come to his eyes like the boy's did, but the pain was there. The kid looked down and gave long thought. Red felt like time was running out, "Please, kid!" he whimpered. **

**The boy looked back up at him, "Stay here. I gotta grab my grampa's keys." and he ran off down the hall, leaving his pad and pencil where they lay. **

**Keevi was the boy's name, by the way. Thanks for waiting. He reached his grandfather's office near the back of the park past the tall wooden fences that bordered the park from the forest that surrounded it. There his grandfather himself was walking toward it when Keevi snuck up behind him, "Hey Grampa! Top o' the crack o' dusk!" twas a greeting used in their family for many generations. The round man with the long black beard spun around to take him up in his arms, but stopped short as his spine would allow. Keevi understood his disability so he didn't expect what he expected a year ago. He walked alongside the groaning zoomaster to his office.**

"**Grampa? Do you think they all like it here?" Keevi asked, pointing back behind them.**

**His grandfather knew exactly what he meant for he'd been asked the same question by countless children over the years. "Of course. I make sure to mimic each habitat closest to what nature designed out in the wild. And as a bonus for them, the feed is absolutely exquisite in nutrition and taste or it doesn't enter my gates. Tis our responsibility to keep all the creatures healthy and happy in a safe and comfortable home, Keev." it almost came out as an autopilot response as if he were giving a tour, but the old man had retired from tour guide status over a year ago. He only tended to paperwork nowadays which he hated.**

**Keevi tugged his shirt, "But grampa, what if they told you they hated it here?" **

**They stopped short just in front of a small brick building where a sign on the door read **_**management **_**and Grampa wasn't fumbling his keys this time. He gave Keevi a look that Keevi never saw him give before.**

"**I'm sure I would do whatever it takes to make it up to them. Whatever they asked of me I would give them." he sat himself down on the doorstep with Keevi beside him.**

"**Forty years ago I inherited this zoo from my dad. He threw me the keys and said this to me. 'You're gonna get a lot of complaints from em. That's what you will have to amend to everyday. But sometimes there are cases where the depression is too deep. A longing for home so deep and intense that not even the largest and most convincing habitat suits. You and I can tell the difference between a beautiful painting of the African savannah and the real sun warming, breeze lifting thing. You will understand that these creatures can tell too and they will tell you, every one of them in the park. You can do the right thing for them when the time comes or they'll do it themselves.' Over the years I have not heard a single peep that deep out of any of the beasts that came and went. I soon convinced myself that my zoo was perfect.;**

**Grampa gave a long sigh, but it didn't sound sad. "Keevi, my son, I know you've heard them because I have too. These past few days a dreadful weight hung on me and it's about time I realized what it meant!"**

**Keevi stood up in front of him, "But uncle Lee! Margarie! Won't everyone be out of work?"**

**Grampa chuckled carelessly, "The critters aren't the only one's who told me they hated it here! Besides your aunt and uncle both took eight years of university. They can grab any job they want. As for everyone else, it seems obvious enough."**

**Grampa stood up with his happy groan, then he pulled the keys off of his belt and threw them to Keevi along with a folded map.**

"**Wait till the park closes, son. And remember the order on the map."**

**The night drew in, colder and darker than most. Red still lay in the desert exhibit asleep until a tap on the glass startled him onto his feet.**

**He saw a tiny hand pointing him to an open door. He hopped the highest he had ever hopped with a loud cheer and took off towards it. **

**Onto a smooth and hard cold floor he almost slipped. The dark hallway seemed to go on forever as he passed the boy by like a swift gale. The boy jumped merrily seeing the roo bound for his beloved home, "Keep fast!" he shouted after him. **

**The order was carefully laid out by his great-grandfather upon the map that he'd passed down to his son years ago. Now it was in Keevi's hands and the time to shut down this zoo had come. **

**There was no right way to keep a living being content in a place that kept it depressed, let alone every one in the park. The animals one by one let the old zoomaster know their feelings, that they all have had enough of this place just as his father before him predicted. It was better to willingly free them all than to try and escape their jail-broken wrath, regardless of your responsibilities business-wise. **

**Yeah, in your world, most animals don't have the capacity in their brains for sympathy or gratitude, but hey, this world branches off a freakin Disney movie. Just go with it.**

**The order was birds first, and it was done in a rather quick, messy flash. **

**Next were the carnivores, beginning with the jungle cats and ending with the reptiles, though Keevi hesitated repeatedly throughout this task only to have them say to him, "Get me out or I **_**will **_**eat you, kid!" **

**His timid trust proved safe and he finished letting the last crocodile pass him by towards the main gate. The herbivores were let out largest to smallest. The elephants gave him a slow frustrating start for they wouldn't budge at first. **

**He was sorry to do it, but he went and found himself a bullwhip and cracked it along the ground behind them sending them off in a loud destructive frenzy out of the park which made him wonder why they had to be first to go if they could cause possible harm to those still locked up. But no other animal seemed to be hurt as he set them one by one towards the gate, though their compartments looked badly grazed. **

**Over what was left of the gate passed the last primate and Keevi was finally left in an empty zoo, or so he thought at first then realized it. **

"**The other roos! I never saw them leave!"**

**He rushed back to the red kangaroo exhibit and found them all wandering about eating and playing. An hour until the sun would rise, he found the mob to be surprisingly more stubborn than the elephants ever were.**

"**Come on! You're free now! The gates are open!" he called out to them, but none of them took any notice of him save one who strode over to him, "Feeding time? At this hour?" the large boomer with the sore nose asked. Keevi pointed over towards the open door. **

"**No. You can return to your old home out there in the wild now. The park is empty. Go now!" **

"**Kid, I liked it here the moment I tasted the wonderful grain. I don't wish to escape back to where there's no grain. Where's my grain?"**

"**Geez!" a palm to his face, then Keevi ran off out of the exhibit.**

**He made it to the storage facility where many kinds of feed were packaged in boxes and sacks piled and sorted, and he searched for the roo grain. He eventually had to topple over many boxes before he'd found the feed in just one real large box in the bottom. **

"**Ey! This is more like it!" an excited voice behind him made him gasp and almost fall to the ground. The whole mob of roos began filling the room in an impatient cluster. **

**Keevi ripped open the box and heaved a heavy sack out which a delicious scent rose from. Without a moment to lose, he dragged the sack through the cluster and out of the facility as fast as he could. **

**Only a few of them followed him down toward the main gate, asking him repeatedly where he was going with their food and some ordering him to drop it while the rest remained in the feed room chewing through the sacks. Only a hundred feet from the gate, gunfire rang out.**

**Keevi screamed and wheeled around. Flashlights flickered violently in front of him, "What the hell do you think you're doing here, kid? Get out of the way!" angry voices of the rangers shouted out and Keevi was grabbed by the arm and pulled like a roped calf to the side of the path. **

"**No! No! Don't hurt them! Their not dangerous! Let them go!" the boy cried as the rangers took aim at the panicked reds trying to dart in any direction. More shots were fired and three roos dropped where they landed. More shots chased the others leaping madly down the path.**

**The ranger seizing Keevi tightened his grip with a fierce growl. "Those keys? You wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you boy?" **

**Keevi without giving any hesitation, nodded, "They weren't happy here anymore!"**

**The back of the rangers jeweled hand left a nasty black gash beside Keevi's brow, and the boy was dragged down the path trying his best to hold back the tears.**

**The rangers reached the zoomaster's office and were called in by another ranger who stood outside the open door after a sudden lone gunshot from inside. **

"**He told us everything. We're as good as bankrupt! Fat old idiot!" **

**Keevi's heart leapt into his throat. The jeweled hands gagged him and pushed him inside the building.**

**From where the desk used to be all piled with forms and envelopes now scattered all over the floor there lay his grampa with a hole in his chest and a peaceful sleep in his face. **

**Keevi was tied up and guarded in a corner where he wept so soundly through his gag and the ranger guarding him constantly threatening another blow if he didn't shut up.**

**The group argued long, "I knew he was losing his mind. He told me he would eventually push this all onto me expecting me to carry it on. And I repeatedly told him I didn't want to run a damn zoo! I told him I planned to sell it off to another **_**more organized **_**keeper and he goes and does **_**this **_**to me?"**

"**They don't want an empty zoo, Lee! With their methods all been illegalized and already a crime streak trailing them, they won't be able to fill it back up in time to keep an effective budget."**

"**I **_**know**_**! Don't you dare remind me again! If only there was a buyer with a more generous offer I'd take it, but no more can I find and also I've already sealed this deal with my career on the line."**

"**All of our careers are on that line! There's a fine property with our name already etched in **_**diamond**_** on it and we can't turn back without suffering the penalty. There's got to be some way out of it. If they won't buy us out we'll still have to pay the difference. We don't have that difference!"**

"**Just goes to show ya can't rush into things without planning them out first." one of them muttered before he was suddenly shot dead.**

"**Is there anyone that can help, Lee? The buyer has us by our necks here!" another put out.**

"**My brother up in the U.S.; Lee grumbled, "but he thinks my university experience is enough to sustain myself and he refuses to shell out a single coin!"**

"**I'm sure he'll have to now."**

"**Like I told you before, he's a pinching pit!" Lee kicked a trash can across the room, then he heard,**

"**Ain't that his kid over there?"**

**Lee looked over at the Keevi crouched into a pitiful, weeping ball in the corner. A flash in his eyes caught all the troop around him. **

"**Oh yeah! That **_**is **_**his boy…things just got a lot easier!"**


End file.
